About To Start Cycle - Quick Question?

[nmcturner]

I'm about to start cycling a 90 gallon tank. Would it speed things up if I took all the lava rock out of established tank and put it in the new tank during cycle.
Does the lava rock hold bacteria?

 

[ephiedoodle]

hi
it will have some on it but not much,can you not nick
some media from an existing tank ?

 

[nmcturner]

hi
it will have some on it but not much,can you not nick
some media from an existing tank ?

I can definately do that. I just wondered if the rocks would also help.

 

[BigIan]

Yep the lava rock should be good as its porus and so will house quite a bit of bacteria

 

[CruX]

hi
it will have some on it but not much,can you not nick
some media from an existing tank ?

Cycling from start could take up to 6 weeks or more, you can obviously nick some media as you said. But consider placing your filter in the running tank for a time then just switch it over and finish cycling. I have a secondry filter running in my tank should I need to set up a hospital or breeding tank in a hurry. Personally I prefer this method rather than removing media and banging it in a new filter but thats just me, many people will disagree but keep your options open. I doubt moving the rock across will make a significant impact on begining new bacteria colonies.

Does this make sense, my better half has been plying me with alcohol all night.

EDIT> I stand corrected by big ian on the rock front. Incidentally big ian must be the guy andywg(?) is upset with for being allowed a communist flag as an avatar when he isn't allowed a fascist one. Blimy OT or what.

 

[doresy]

Hi, if you can put as much mature media from existing tank that will have you processing some ammonia from the get go. Watch that you don't send your old tank into a mini cycle so do test that after a couple of days.

Ornaments, substrate and water do not hold enough bacteria to make them worth while donors.

You can pump up the temperature and add an air stone to assist a fishless cycle